Lerner has supposedly already been told that Xia will not pass the necessary financial tests to complete ownership and his consortium’s takeover will be rejected on the grounds that they haven’t got the funds to complete it.

This comes despite Xia claiming he has more than £100m sat in an account in England and that Villa would have £50m to spend on new players.

If the deal does fall through, it will be a major blow for the club who will struggle to put everything in place ahead of their first season outside of the Premier League since its inception.